How you start your day matters
What does your first hour of the day look like? It may very well depend on your last of the previous day.
If you feel out of control, I suggest taking control of your first hour of the day. Our lives can easily be swept into the chaos of the urgent or the seemingly urgent. Emails, news, and the day’s tasks needn’t be urgent in the first hour. On the other hand, you may have a care scenario that requires immediate action in the mornings.
But, experiment with some of these ideas to bring order and proactive energy to your day in your first hour:
- Prayer, reflection, meditation, visualization. Even for 10 minutes, the practice of focusing and calming your attention can begin to set you free from the tyranny of the urgent.
- Move, exercise, stretch. If you can roll out of bed and run, great! If not, try to implement some type of yoga, stretching, or light exercise into your first hour. Celebrate a 10 minute victory of movement. The little things add up.
- Read, journal, plan. Put something good in your mind first. Lead yourself to start your day thinking the way you want to think. Work out your thoughts through journaling, or get ahead of your day by thinking things through and prioritizing your activities of the day.
- My typical first hour often includes: reviewing my “better thoughts playlist” followed by 5-10 minutes of brain exercise. Then, I either read and write, or get outside for a walk or a jog. If I can do this, my day gets off to a much better start.
Life gets crazy with all sorts of demands. Take back some of your sanity by engaging with full intention in your first hour.
